My property was previously unlet for 12 months and I now have new tenants moving in in10 days time. I have an EICR booked for two days time. My Fusebox is the old plastic one and I am paranoid that if my property fails the test, for this reason, there might not be enough time to conduct the remedial work before my tenants move-in date.
I have asked my new tenants if we could provisionally delay the move-in date by a week, but they are desperate to move-in as they are experiencing serious housing issues. They are happy to have any remedial work done around them.
I wonder whether Openrent would request to see my EICR certificate before allowing my tenants to move in? Any advice would be appreaciated. Thanking you in advance.
The legislation requires uou to get the work done before the tenancy begins. Whether there would be any consequences from not doing so is hard to tell. It wont affect any later s21 notice. It might affect your insurance though. In theory they could report you to the Council, but this seems unlikely. Even if they did the Council may not take any action. Clearly you cant have tenants moving into the property with unsafe electrics, so it depends what is found.
Openrent won’t check this, or any other documents for that matter - so it won’t prevent your tenants moving in. It is ultimately the landlord’s responsibility to ensure that safety and related documentation is up to date. I experienced a similar situation where I needed to update an existing fusebox to ensure it passed the EICR after the new requirement came into effect. The tenants had already been there for some months and they were fine for the electrician to carry out the works. However, I already knew about the specific remedial works required and I knew that it was still safe. As David mentions, the property needs to be safe and it depends on what is found re: electrics. I would get an electrician over to advise asap. I wouldn’t pay for the EICR before knowing if it would pass or needs replacing.
Thank you for your advice. I had an electrician in about 2 weeks ago to remove an old storage heating and replace it with a panel heating. He actually advised me to have an EICR done to acertain the condition of the electrics. I will have a chat with him and perhaps seek a second opinion from another electrician. Thank you once again.
You shouldn’t have needed advising by the electrician that you perhaps should have an EICR to ascertain the condition of the electrics - it’s a legal requirement to have an EICR!
Are you sure there are no other legal requirements you might not know about??
Yes, an EICR is a legal requirement as Cath correctly points out - just to clarify my previous comment, I would get all necessary works done before the EICR, and an electrician should be able to advise on that. Otherwise you risk paying for an EICR that fails, then having to sort out the remedial work and pay a second time for another EICR, if that makes sense. A fusebox replacement involves quite a few hours (mine took all day) with the electrics off while the engineer is there so the tenants also need to be aware that they won’t be able to work from home that day or essentially do anything requiring a power source.
Many thanks again for your advice. It makes absolute sense to to get any necessary work done prior to having the EICR assessment done. I have now cancelled the scheduled EICR. I have also received a quote of £500 to update the consumer unit. I aim to get the consumer unit updated ASAP and then have the EICR done.
It’s unlikely you’ll get a fail just for having a plastic consumer board
They’ll give you an advisory which is fine
No need to upgrade unless it’s faulty
It’s not the age that’s the problem, it’s whether it’s safe or not, and most are. My understanding is that it’s considered that metal is safer than plastic from a fire point of view, so building regs changed so that new houses and new installations had to have metal consumer boards fitted after 1st January 2016. But as with most things, the law isn’t retrospective, so as long as it’s safe (and the competent person carrying out the test will ascertain that) then it’s ok, but, as there is a later board available the electrician will mark it as an advisory. (C3) which is like an advisory on a car MOT. Some say it’s only needed as an advisory if it’s under wooden stairs or on the only escape route.
Personally, I upgraded some boards on the properties I was planning to keep long term, or the wiring needed sorting anyway, as it brought them in line with the 18th edition of the wiring regulations. Others I left as they were.
Also, our local council has a list of approved electricians for carrying out EICR’s so check yours is on the list and acceptable to them.
Do some research, go on a council organised landlord electrical safety course, and this info is my understanding of the law. One website is
Many years ago the boxes were all metal and we told plastic is safer ,now we told metal is safer. Lots of plastic fuses in a metal box. Nice work if you can get it!!
Hi Stephen, thank you very much for taking the time to explain things and for the link to the 2022 guide. I plan go through the guide this morning. I will also look into a council-organised landlord safety course. I promise to report back regarding how I get on. Thank you so much once again.
Hi John, thank you for your insight. The consensus so far is that I get the EICR done first. I will reinstate the appointment ASAP. I also aim to read the guide Stephen55 so kindly brought to my attention.
I promise to revert to this forum regarding progress. Thank you once again.
Thank you everyone for your help.
Following my interaction on this thread, I had the EICR done ( £80) and updated the consumer board
( £365). I now have a clean EICR report, which expires in 2027 and my new tenants have since moved in.
Thank you all once again.
